Yummy

Today Karina and I made chocolate covered strawberries, bananas, and apples for our neighbor, Mr. Terry.  He has brought Karina goodies and presents for every holiday since she was born.  For Easter he brought her more chocolate and candy than the Easter bunny did!  So we wanted to do something special for him.  I thought about a fruit arrangement from a popular store, but frankly, I can't afford those.  The cheapest ones are $40, and even though they are delicious beyond reason, I still can't do that.  So I thought some more and realized that the chocolate dipped fruit part is the best thing about those arrangements, so I made some myself.  Many thanks to Rachel from Second Time Around who helped me figure out how to do it, and to Hershey's chocolate chips for printing the microwave melting directions on their package!  (No, nobody paid me to say that.  I bought the chips myself and I chose them simply because of Karina's peanut allergy)  They turned out sooooo good!

Karina "helped" by which I mean stood on a chair and watched (I didn't want her slobbery fingers in someone else's food!) and then we ate some of the melted chocolate that was leftover, and voila!  After they were cold in the fridge, we tasted them and she didn't want any part of them!  Can you believe that?  Oh well, more for me!  I did of course save some for us!

We took them over to Terry's house along with some pictures Karina drew and some thank you cards.  I also included some pictures of Karina for him.

If you ever want to try these chocolate covered fruit things, they were so easy, it was ridiculous.  You can melt the chocolate in a double broiler if you want, but honestly, after seeing how easily and quickly the Hershey's chips melted in the microwave (90 seconds, the whole bag, stir, 30 seconds more, for me at least), I don't think I'll ever do the stove version.  Then you just dip the fruit in, and when you're done you lick the chocolate off your fingers and the bowl, and stick the fruit in the fridge to harden the chocolate.  SO easy!

Once again, I will say, nobody paid me to say any of the nice things about Hershey's chocolate chips.  I bought the chips myself and received no compensation whatsoever, unless you count the joy of eating the delicious chocolate afterwards.